The Racelogic DriftBox

May we say it's the hottest package to come out of England since Keira Knightley?

To calculate drift, Racelogic found a clever way to make use of existing technology from the VBOX and three simple motion sensors — one lateral and one longitudinal accelerometer (they are used to align the box) and one yaw-rate sensor. The DriftBox comes with a 10-Hz global-positioning-system (GPS) processor, meaning it's able to collect data 10 times a second (the VBOX has a 20-Hz processor, allowing it to collect data 20 times a second).

Like the VBOX, the DriftBox communicates with GPS satellites. To work properly it needs to "see" at least four of these satellites — there are 24 orbiting the earth. As you travel in a car with a DriftBox, it measures the tiny shifts in arrival time of the radio signals bouncing between the satellites and its GPS antenna. From that shift, the DriftBox calculates distance, speed, acceleration, and lateral acceleration. In other words, it knows in what direction the vehicle is heading and how fast it's going. As you drift, the yaw-rate sensor helps keep tabs on the direction the car is pointed. The difference between the direction the vehicle is heading and direction it's pointed is known as side slip or drift.

Every 10th of a second, the DriftBox records how much you're drifting, how fast you're going, and how many g you're pulling.